37 THE ENGLISH HORN: ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT INTO ORCHESTRAL MUSIC THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF MUSIC By Robert E. Stanton, B. M. Denton, Texas January, 1968 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS..................... ....... iv Chapter I. HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH HORN. ......... 1 II. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ENGLISH HORN .............. 26 III. ORCHESTRAL DEVELOPMENT . ........... 44 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............. ........ 64 iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figuree Page 1. Alto pommer.. .................... 0...... 4 2. Oboe da caccia -0 . 0 0. I.. 0. 0.0 . 5 3. Tenor Oboe of Bach-Handel Period . 7 4. Hornpipe . 0. 0. *.. 0. 0. 0. 0 . 9 5. (5) Tenor Hautboy; (6) Cor Anglais (Eighteenth century).................. ......... 12 6. Cor Anglais, Curved and Angular Types, (2)and (4) - 0 . .0 .0 . .0 .0 . 13 7. Hautbois Baryton, (4) and (5) . 14 8. Vox Humana ... .. .. 16 9. Fontanelle 17 10. Bulb-bell..... ... ..... 18 11. Hunting Oboe . 20 12. Notation for Cor Anglais . 29 13. Construction of Bent Cor Anglais; (A), (B), (C) . .. 33 14. Bow-drill in use . 36 15. Cor Anglais reeds. ........ 41 16. Range of English Horn.. .... 43 17. Tenoroon 45 18. List of Bach's Use of Oboe da caccia . 47 19. Oboe da caccia Accompaniment, St. Matthew Passion 48 iv Figure Page 20. Oboe da caccia part, St. Matthew Passion...-.-......... ... 50 21. Gluck: Orfeus for Corno Inglese 53 22. Berlioz: Roman Carnival...... ...... 56 23. Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique 57 24. Wagner: Tristan and Isolde 59 25. Dvorak: New World SyMphony 60 V CHAPTER I HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH HORN The English horn has a background of historical con fusion because the instrument was built in many different shapes and was given a new name for each change of form. The shapes ranged from the one-piece straight body (pommer) to various degrees of bending in an arc, and finally returned to a straight body, bulb-bell, and a slightly bent bocal. The alto pommer, tenor oboe, taille, oboe da caccia, haute contre de hautbois, hautbois de chasse, cor anglais, corno inglese, Englisch Horn, and finally the English horn are the names used down through the years for this instrument. There is no doubt that the instruments built a fifth lower in pitch (below C) were used before the end of the seventeenth century to complete the harmony of the oboes. Many historians have concluded that the tenor instruments developed more gradually than the treble, and for the same reason it took longer to find recognition as a member of the orchestra. Anthony Baines' reexamination of the Talbot manu script has enabled us to date the advent of the oboe proper with some certainty. Writing about the year 1700, James Talbot said, "The present hautbois is not forty years old," and again under the same heading, "Tenor hautbois differ not 1 2 from treble in shape." 1 We may therefore assume that the two instruments appeared almost simultaneously. The Talbot manuscript gives, in particular, details and measurements of a tenor oboe made by the celebrated Bressan which was probably a true oboe, and not a shawm, although no mention is made of joint construction. None of Bressan's oboes have survived, though some of his recorders have been found. The workman ship of these instruments shows him to have been a fine craftsman. A further note to Talbot's manuscript refers to his having seen another tenor oboe, this time by John Ashbury (c. 1690), which was made in one piece. In spite of having this feature which characterizes the shawm in general, the specimen is carefully recorded by Talbot under the heading "French hautbois," which seems to indicate that at least some of the instruments he knew were of the transitional type.2 The oboes with pear-shaped bells such as the oboe d'amore and the cor anglais, were not a new invention in the eigh teenth century. Instruments of this kind appeared as early as the thirteenth century in the miniatures of King Alfonso el Sabio's Cantigos en loor de Santa Maria at the Escorial, and certain provinces of France have preserved the form Philip Bate, The Oboe,, An Outline of Its Histary, Development, and Construction (New York, 1956), p. 90. 2 Ibid. 3 (pear-shaped bells) in instruments called musettes, which should not be confused with the bagpipes of the same name.3 The tenor or alto oboes trace their descent from the alto shawm (pommer or bombard). The transformation of these oboes did not take place at the same time as did the transformation of the treble shawm to the oboe in C, but it must have been accomplished before the end of the seventeenth century, for in his music to Dioclesian (1691), Purcell asked for a "tenor hautboy." It was the instrument sounding a fifth below the oboe in C which, after having figured as the oboe da caccia, taille or haute contre de hautbois, became the cor anglais some time after the middle of the eighteenth century. 4 The alto pommer (see Figure 1) developed into the oboe da caccia which was brought into prominence through the music of J. S. Bach. This instrument was longer than the oboe, being pitched a fifth below C. During the first part of the eighteenth century the oboe da caccia assumed a curved shape for the player's convenience in handling, an innovation at tributed by Bate to the Italian oboists Giovanni and Giuseppe Ferlendis. The attribution, if correct, would imply that Bach was familiar with only the straight form of the instrument, 3 Curt Sachs, The History of Musical Instruments (New York, 1940), p. 384. 4 Bate, The Oboe, p. 91. 4 Fig. 1--Alto pommer since Giuseppe Ferlendis was not born until five years (1755) after the death of Bach.5 Whether curved or straight, the oboe da caccia (see Figure 2) at Bach's disposal was uniform in compass and mechanism. He used it generally in the lowest extremity of its range. As with the oboe in C, Bach used the simpler keys: sharp signatures are rare with those of two and three flats being the most numerous. As yet, the bell was flared, the tone penetrating, mellower, and more plaintive than that of the ordinary oboe.6 5 Charles Sanford Terry, Bach's Orchestra (London, 1932), p. 103. 6 Ulric Daubeny, Orchestral Wind Instruments (London, 1920), p. 104. 5 FIGURE I19. \ FIGURE I17'. Oboe cla. (c. 1700). FIGURE 118. Oboe (c. 1900). 'IGURE 120. Cor angls. Fig. 2w-Oboe da caccia Bach, in a'memorandum to the Leipzig Council in August, 1730, complained that no player was available for the "3 Hautbois oder Taille." This problem must have often con fronted the composer, for three oboes were prescribed only in thirty-two cantatas, the "Sanctus" of the HOhe Messe, one secular cantata, and three orchestral works. The oboe da 7 Ibid. 6 caccia replaced the Taille, as third oboe, in six cantatas, Numbers 6, 74, 87, 110, 128, and 176. As stated earlier, both of these instruments were pitched in F.8 It is to be noted that Bach appeared to make a clear distinction between the oboe da caccia and the Taille for use as the tenor, though what special features he recognized under each is not known. Possibly it was only a distinction of usage: Taille for the tenor (see Figure 3) employed in harmony with the other oboes, and da caccia when used as a solo voice. J. S. Bach scored for the instruments mentioned previously during the period from 1723 to 1740. His works of this period will be discussed in Chapter III. Thomas Stansby, Jr. made an oboe da caccia in 1740 of straight pattern in four pieces, having a bent metal crook for the insertion of the reed and two saddle keys; but the bell was like the bell of the oboe, not globular like that of the cor 10 anglais. After 1760 little more is heard of the oboe da caccia, but a pair of corni inglesi began to appear in Viennese scores (e._.2, Gluck and Haydn). As far as is known, the corno inglese was the same instrument as the oboe da caccia, except perhaps for the details of the bell; but why 8 Terry, Bach's Orchestra, p. 99. 9 Bate, The Oboe, p. 91. 10 Kathleen Schlesinger, "Cor Anglais, " Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. VII (New York, 1910), p. 135. 7 2 ~. ~ 4 5 6 7 / f ~Ij~ vi' '' /4 _t /5 Is I IC ~ 8 10 11 12 13 xxx. OTII ER 18-iii-ci..N 1 i oII I\ 1) 1I. I. twO-k(eed (I ha I timeatu (reproduuCion of forIA I M ih p I iI): 2. oic-keced flte, Pol Ir; ,B fife, WilIIhire; .1, treble recorder, /'' i p a k,O-k\ d ( L 1-I Wt, C.IYIy tyLp) ru scmbli ng recorder, 7. C. Den ner; 6, two-keyed cIi i ci , 1;11 tpe, /. C. D r (: 7, CI ii inette d'amour, Ven era:8, treble deuwsche Schalmley, / o thr'-kc\1,(d bassol (f c;Iri Iest type. 7. C. DBraer; Io. irec-keyed oboe of Bach-li andl 1wriOd. B orhow,; i I. tenor oboe of ];a I- Idalcl Period. I 'vile: 12, oboe d'aiore. I dI I I I - Ihdc priod, Eirlrheopf; I two keyed oboe, English straighth top >'d' modil, Al/or Fig. 3--Tenor oboe of Bach-Handel Period 8 the "hunting oboe" should have become the English horn is a mystery.11 It was the awkwardness of holding such a long straight instrument which caused makers to bend the tube (bocal) of the tenor oboe, and when this instrument was made in a curved form with a bulb-bell it began to acquire the name cor anglais.